Thursday 7 April 2011

E is for... Extremely well-Educated Edamame

E is for... Extremely well-Educated Edamame

Here is today's entry in the A-Z of Awesome Japan, a sponsored charity drawathon I will be doing all month of Things About Japan, That Are Awesome! Check out the full set so far on Flickr!

Annotations:
  • Edamame are soy beans, generally eaten simply boiled or steamed, and served in the pod, sprinkled with rock salt. They are the BEST.
  • Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
So, some NEWS. This is a bit of a swerve, I know, but I'm going to be changing the way I do the A-Z. From now on will not be drawing any more copyrighted characters (that I did not create, anyway) as part of this kind of thing. I can't really go into the details of why, I'm afraid. Something crappy happened this week, and it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth, a massive dose of paranioa about blogging that kind of thing, and pretty much zero enthusiasm for it. And I'm afraid that's really all I can say about that.

Apologies to anyone who feels put out by this change, and in particular to @RusDady, whose excellent and highly entertaining suggestion for E - "Evangelion-01 Eating an Enchilada on an Elephant" I was very much looking forward to drawing.

I WILL however be carrying on with the A-Z, as lots of you have been awesome enough to sponsor me already. And you know what, I'm going to make it EVEN MORE AWESOME. I see it as a kind of "the best revenge is living well" response to the events of this week. After giving it some thought, I'm actually really excited to carry on; from hereon in I'm going to be seeing it more as me making my own personal love letter to all the things I adore about Japan, and I really don't think I should have any trouble finding subjects for the rest of the alphabet.

Readers are still welcome to chip in suggestions, but please note the 'no copyrighted characters' rule. As a rule of thumb: Ninjas= YES, Naruto=NO. Okay?

I will continue to update the A-Z as often as possible - it's not going to be every single day now, but I'll try and keep it at 2-3 times a week (more where possible). Also, as and when I get a chance I'll be going back through and redoing the drawings for A-D with new versions to fit the new rules. Because I didn't have enough to be getting on with.

Deep breaths.

Anyway! You are of course you are still very welcome to sponsor me! All donations go to the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund and are hugely appreciated - I keep wishing I was richer / famouser and could do more to help, but this is all I can think of to do, so this is what I am going to keep on doing.



I think that's everything. Thank you for your patience.

5 comments:

  1. Edifyingly erudite as well, excellent!

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  2. Ah, so that's what it was. Sucks when someone tries to ruin something you're passionate about. Looking forward to the new direction, though!

    New suggestion: Samurai skewering sushi.

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  3. Anyway, the result is the best in the series so far...

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  4. It is my wish that any jackasses who yelled at you for using fair use drawings to get money IN ORDER TO HELP PEOPLE will get their nasty karmic comeuppance. In spades.

    In the meanwhile, here's some re-suggestions for A-D.

    An Ancient Armored Assassin Annihilating Androids

    Bikers Bedazzled By Buddha's Bad-Ass Breakdancing

    Chain-mail Clad Cyborg Catgirls Calmly Chatting About Card Games (or Comics, if you prefer)

    Diminutive Dragons Devouring Daikon Delightedly

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  5. I would think as the whole thing seems like a parody, that using copyrighted characters would fall under fair use. I'm sorry someone or someones had to ruin your day. I love what you are doing!

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